Paul "Bear" Bryant, the coach who made the houndstooth hat famous, shared many exciting moments in the Cotton Bowl. In five appearances, he was one of only three coaches to lead more than one university to the Classic. His first trip to Dallas came in 1952 when he guided Kentucky to a 20-7 victory over TCU. Then, with his move to Alabama, he and the Crimson Tide made four more Cotton Bowl appearances. However, The Bear may be remembered more for a game he lost than for his two victories. In the 1968 Classic, Gene Stallings, one of his former players, directed Texas A&M to a 20-16 upset. After the game, Bryant gave his former pupil a congratulatory bear hug...a moment frozen in time in the lore of the Cotton Bowl.

Duke Carlisle, the Longhorn defensive ace turned quarterback, gave college football a performance to remember when No. 1 Texas faced No. 2 Navy in one of the most eagerly awaited bowl matchups ever. The Longhorns were unbeaten at 10-0-0 while Navy was 9-1-0. Much of the focus fell upon Navy quarterback Roger Staubach, college football's Heisman Trophy winner. However, it didn't take long for Carlisle and Texas to gain the upper hand. The Midshipmen dared the ground-oriented Longhorns to throw the ball and Carlisle answered the challenge by throwing touchdown bombs of 58 and 63 yards early in the game. He then ran nine yards for another score just before halftime. The end result was a convincing 28-6 Texas victory and the dispute was settled as to which team was No. 1.

The term "Wrecking Crew" is defined as a tenacious, swarming defense, one that turns opposing offenses inside-out with no place to run. The moniker came into vogue in the mid-1980s when Texas A&M linebacker Johnny Holland served as one of the ringleaders of the first "Wrecking Crew" defense. Blessed with tremendous quickness and football instincts, Holland was spectacular for the Aggies against Auburn and Ohio State. In those two games, "Mr. Everywhere" logged 27 tackles, 18 were solo efforts. In the Classic's Golden Anniversary game, Holland unloaded on Auburn with 16 tackles and was involved in two crucial fourth down situations in the fourth quarter that propelled A&M to a resounding 36-16 victory over Auburn and Heisman winner Bo Jackson.

Texas A&M fullback John Kimbrough was big, strong and hard to bring down. Kimbrough's bone jarring collisions were infamous. That's why they called him Jarrin' John. He wasn't the average football player of the 1940s. Standing 6-2 and weighing 222 pounds, the Haskell Hurricane was an imposing force on the gridiron. Opposing defenders often compared tackling Kimbrough with tackling a truck. There wasn't any trickery or shiftiness in his running style. Everyone knew where he was going. They just couldn't stop him. At the 1941 Cotton Bowl, Kimbrough plowed through Fordham defenders for 66 yards on 18 carries and scored the game's decisive touchdown in the third quarter, a one-yard burst around left end. After the game, Ram players agreed that knocking Kimbrough off his feet was just too much to ask.

"Hello everybody, I'm Lindsey Nelson." For 26 years, this was his signature greeting as Nelson welcomed millions of football fans from around the country to the Cotton Bowl. A true pioneer of sports broadcasting, Nelson's radio and television career began in 1948 and spanned five decades in which he covered thousands of sporting events. His tenure as the "Voice of the Cotton Bowl" began on NBC with the radio broadcast of the 1951 game. Three years later he teamed up with Red Grange for the telecast of the infamous 1954 Cotton Bowl Classic. His streak of 17 consecutive Cotton Bowl broadcasts began with the 1970 Classic and ended with his retirement following the 1986 Cotton Bowl. Nelson's unique delivery style, those colorful test-pattern sportcoats, and his intense love for college football made Big D a special place to be every New Year's Day.

If Dallas only knew what the future held when Roger Staubach, Navy's junior quarterback, brought his Heisman Trophy to the 1964 Cotton Bowl Classic. In a dream matchup that pitted No. 1 Texas vs. No. 2 Navy, Staubach gave football fans something to get excited about. Despite Navy's loss to the Longhorns, he was brilliant in defeat. Staubach completed an astounding 21 passes for 228 yards. However, it was Staubach's nimble feet that got Navy into the end zone that day against Texas. Late in the fourth quarter, he ran two yards for the Midshipmen's lone touchdown. At the time, no one realized that "Captain America" was about to find a home. His efforts for the Cotton Bowl didn't end on the playing field. As a Dallas civic leader and a former color analyst for CBS, Roger Staubach has established a lasting relationship with Dallas' New Year's Day Classic.

Jim Swink lived for the big play. Throughout his career, the Rusk Rambler left defenders grasping in air as the elusive halfback turned long, broken field runs into points. With his gliding, side-stepping running style, Swink was poetry in motion. He scored twice in TCU's narrow 14-13 loss to Ole Miss in the 1956 Classic. His first touchdown was a short, one-yard burst, but the second score came on a dazzling 39-yard sprint over right tackle. Swink returned to the Cotton Bowl a year later for the Frogs' celebrated duel with Syracuse and Jim Brown. True to form, Swink scored what proved to be TCU's winning touchdown, the 35th of his career, on a three-yard blast early in the fourth quarter. The score pushed TCU to a 28-14 advantage and a cushion that Syracuse could not overcome.